


Sneaking Out

by Perfect_Smauging



Category: Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 20:05:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10998033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perfect_Smauging/pseuds/Perfect_Smauging
Summary: A night shared is brought to the surface for both Molly and Toby after Renee confesses her feelings.





	Sneaking Out

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on the four-heart dialogue with Toby in Animal Parade and the rival system.

She was just leaving the coop, Daisy, her first chicken, had hurt her wing, and Jin had given her some medicine to help with the pain. Looking across the fields, Molly saw Renee walking up the dirt path, and called out to her friend.  
“I have the sunflowers you wanted sitting on the counter inside—”  
“—Actually, I came to ask for your advice, Molly,” Renee began, “You know Toby…”  
Molly’s vision blurred, the fields spun out of focus, her mind pulsed, repeated: green, green, green: the color of his eyes, his eyes that night.  
He looked up at her, opened his eyes, the same color as the fields in spring, and asked with his gentle smile, “Sneak out?”  
She grinned at him from his window sill, “Come on,” she urged, “out the window.”  
Grabbing her outstretched hand, she pulled him across Harmonica Town’s cobblestone, over the bridge, and down onto the shore. Two fishing poles stuck into the sand were waiting for them, though the rising tide soon stole them out to sea. Molly charged into the ocean, chasing after the poles she had carefully carved their initials into, like lovers carve their hopes into trees. Toby followed her into the water, his silver hair matching the moon’s reflection on the sea, his face—normally serene—enlivened as the ocean’s salt crashed around them. She looked up at him, trying to reach his eyes,  
“I love you.”  
Renee stood in front of her waiting. Renee who went to the fishery every Wednesday long before Molly moved to town. Renee who Paolo and Ozzie would hug when she walked in, like she was already part of the family. Renee who taught Molly how to shear sheep, who always lent a helping hand and a friendly ear. Renee who hung on every word Toby said, who went fishing with him in every moment of spare time, who Molly saw the way Toby looked at. Saw them laugh, the way she made him smile. Saw the towns people whisper when they walked past, joke about the inevitable wedding. Saw herself sitting in the pews, watching him be given away, no, watching him smile. She blinked, took a step back only to bump into the mailbox, rusted metal tearing her shirt. Her throat stiffened, chest hardened,

“Go for it.”

꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

“Go for it.”  
He was just coming back from the mining district, saw that Molly was out, and decided to take a nap on the pier, maybe fish some. She was back now. Toby dropped the sakura seashell necklace onto the deck. Molly loved seashells, she’d always bring him the ones she thought were prettiest, but he had found the most beautiful one, iridescent in the sunlight, and added a pearl. The pink laughed at him now, the same pink as Molly’s face when she blushed, though he’d only seen her blush once.  
There was a soft knock at his window and her freckled face mouthing at him to let her in.  
“Sneak out?” He heard himself ask. She remembered, all those days lying at the pier, her rushing by with a wave, or stopping never long enough. But she remembered, every detail, a stupid childhood story of false rebellion, and here she was.  
“Molly we can just go out the front door, I won’t wake Paolo.”  
“No, we’re sneaking out Toby, come on,” she pressed, “out the window.”  
And suddenly his hand was in hers and she was leading him under Harmonica Town’s Streetlamps, under the stars, to the water. Two fishing poles stuck in the sand, though when the tide rose, they were washed into the sea. Throwing off her boots, Molly ran into the waves trying to retrieve the poles. Toby dove in after her, feet sinking in the sand. The moonlight reflected off the water and onto her face, her freckles becoming the stars. She spoke, but the crashing waves washed out her voice, his eyes stuck on her mouth trying to read the words. His eyes stuck on her lips trying to think of anything else. Raising his eyes to hers, his cheeks reddened, only to see her matching pink face.  
He looked up at her orchard across the pond, the trees where he finally convinced her energetic spirit to take a nap, where she would have him pick oranges in the summer, laughing that she was putting him to work, where they would sit and peel the oranges, the sweet citrus filling him with her scent. The orchard where they dried themselves in sun the day she pulled him into the pond. Laughing, splashing, arms almost around him in the water, and then her hands a blink away from his on the shore where she asked him what he likes about fishing, his favorite season, does he miss his parents. The orchard where they chased down Daisy and Tulip and the other chickens when they strayed too far from the coop. The orchard where she proudly showed off her largest catch, a catfish, challenging Toby to catch a bigger one. The orchard where he had foolishly thought they would grow old together.  
The necklace rolled off the deck into the pond with a splash. Awakened from his thoughts, Toby dropped to his knees to save it from the water, the edge of the shell slicing his palm.


End file.
